In May 2014 tensions were brought to a fore, when China began drilling operations with the mobile oil rig Haiyang Shiyou 981 near the Paracel Islands. The oil rig, owned by the Chinese state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), was sent to a location 120 nautical miles from the Vietnamese coast and 17 nautical miles from Triton Island, part of the Paracel Islands formation. CNOOC announced that drilling would take place until mid-August 2014 and China’s Maritime Safety Authority announced an exclusion zone around the platform for any vessels unrelated to its operations. The rig was escorted by 40 Chinese maritime vessels as well as Chinese naval assets.